I was a little bit saddened to find the kerfuffle over an encryption key for HD-DVD being reported as a 21st Century Rebellion.

Don’t get me wrong, here, I find the idea that industry should have the right to control how we watch films distasteful; I think it will limit what we can do with the digital content that we choose to buy; I think that it will result in horrible user interfaces, with limited choices; I think it will result in far more control being placed in the hands of a few people than is healthy.

But in the past, rebellion meant slaves struggling for the freedom, workers struggling for the profit of their own work, minorities struggling for civil liberties. It’s a bit sad when this it becomes posting a number on a website like digg.com. Lets face it, if anyone gets sued, it will be the admins of digg, not the people posting. This is hardly standing up to be counted, now is it?

At least some of my chums had the guts to put it up on their own websites. Still not exactly Tom Paine but at least it’s a start.

Originally published on my old blog site.